Why Your Lack of Consistency Is Keeping You Poor

Why Your Lack of Consistency Is Keeping You Poor

What one thing do successful writers, investors, sports men and women, and business peeps have in common?

It is the same thing that unites successful YouTubers, bloggers and even connects the dot for successful parenting and marriages.

That one thing is consistency.

Taking this further, what I mean here is consistently doing the right things as time passes.

Yesterday, my Google Photos app reminded me that it has been 7 years since I became a dad.

I reminisced and looked at pictures of our son from 2013 😊. 

Something about looking back in time makes you reflect about your life – What has gone well and what hasn’t.

I considered how much he had grown to become a bright and somewhat independent young man.

He has a love for books now and the thing that brings him joy at this age is reading “chapter books”.

This joy that we see in our son’s life today is not an accident nor a coincidence.

You see, ever since he was in mummy’s tummy, we have been reading him books of all varieties.

Even on nights when we’re tired and the natural default is to send the kids to bed, we’d sneak in reading for 10mins.

At age 3, he had the reading age of a 5 year old, and at age 7, he can read like a 12 year old. 

Such is the gift of consistency. It truly has the power to transform lives.

Although it is easy to dismiss the above as ordinary occurrence, it is also easy to miss the beauty of consistency.

When I think of my life today and reflect on the many things that are going well, I can relate those bits of progress to the power of consistency.

I even see it as a secret sauce. Something I have learnt to do and export to various areas of my life.

Examples of such areas include:

• Delivering the blog posts you’re reading weekly,
• Creating 2 high quality videos for our YouTube Channel weekly,
• Operating at a high level daily as an Executive (CFO),
• Deliberately sowing into my marriage daily,
• Giving my kids a bath in the mornings and doing homework at night,
• Maintaining a healthy social life, 
• Eating well, staying fit and looking after my mind,
• Praying and seeking wisdom daily.

That list continues to be honest and I often marvel at being able to get so much done consistently.

The only reason this works is because I had i.) tried and tested consistency, ii.) understood its power, and iii.) made it a part of who I am over time.

Choosing to make consistency a part of who I am has not only made me a better person, but it has also transformed my financial life.

In normal speak, it has made us richer and given us more life options than we ever thought was possible.

I recently told you about how I embraced a new attitude when I wrote about the 10 Things I Did Differently to become Financially Independent.

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One such attitude was to get used to committing to things that I believe in and run with them.

Committing to doing something is the prerequisite to achieving consistency.

Have you been wanting to start that side hustle or lifestyle business? Been wanting to start investing consistently?

Although the lack of consistency in your efforts might appear to be the diagnosis, what you might find is that it goes a little deeper than that.

Whenever I’ve coached people who lack consistency with investing, part of the reason why is because they’ve not committed to embracing the future they dream about.

The same goes for side hustles. Before consistency at making it work comes a commitment to, say, making multiple income streams.

And tied to consistency is the need to create accountability.

In short, consistency separates success and failure, as well as rich and poor. 

To share why a lack of consistency is likely what keeps you poor, let’s dive in and look at what you miss out on without consistency.

Benefits of Consistency

Here are some of the often overlooked benefits of consistency in all areas of life:

1. Consistency Gives You Authority

To make this real, I’ll use a practical example of content creation.

The mere fact that I create content and deliver it at the same time every week across our various channels gives me growing authority.

I see this everyday by the increasing number of emails, comments, media requests, etc.

You might for example see this trend in your work environment e.g. showing up at work early daily or even showing up for meetings prepared.

Such authority leads to trust over time, and such trust usually leads to opportunity (monetary and non-monetary).

2. Consistency Gives You Something To Measure

Classic examples of this include investing consistently every month and being able to measure the growth of your net worth.

Or even consistently trying to increase your savings rate and measuring what impact that has on your future goals.

It is not a coincidence that things that get measured get improved over time. 

Such improvements lead to better financial and life outcomes over time.

3. Consistency Improves Your Reputation

If you consistently do things well time and time again, and can demonstrate results, it leads to improved reputation.

A good example of this is consistency in demonstrating honesty and integrity.

I’ve previously highlighted this as one of the important ways of attracting good fortune (money, etc) to yourself.

4. Consistency Gives You Purpose

This particular point is especially important if you’re someone who is interested in starting a business.

I can’t tell you how amazing it feels for me to wake up early (4.30am – 5am) most mornings to work on my life’s mission – The Humble Penny.

The mere fact that I’ve made this a part of who I am gives me something to look forward to each day and means that half the battle is won.

5. Consistency Gives You An Edge

I spend a lot of my time observing people (outside of my normal environment) who are exceptional at their crafts.

From Ludovico Einaudi playing beautiful piano or Hans Zimmer storytelling through music with this perfect score of Time.

What I’ve learned from watching these people is that they’re unrivalled in their spheres.

They have been able to achieve this because of consistency for years at perfecting their crafts.

The same applies to many other people (in sports, education, etc) who have achieved varying levels of success in life.

That trend is the same – Commitment and then Consistency.

Want to have an unstoppable edge in life? It starts with consistency across various areas of what you do, including your finances.

Watch a SPECIAL EDITION of this blog post in this video as I interview my brother (a Tokyo 2020 Paralympian on Consistency):

How To Achieve Consistency

Below are some practical ideas for how to achieve consistency in your life.

1. Do Things Before Fixed Events In Your Day

We all know that each day we typically get breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you want to be consistent at achieving a specific goal in your life, schedule smaller elements of that bigger goal to happen before these meal times.

For example, let us say that you want to start an impactful blog.

A good way to force yourself to be consistent is to schedule key tasks e.g. Research blog names before breakfast. 

Or work on your blog set-up for 45 mins before lunch, etc.

The key is to fit these in daily and tick them off as you go along.

This method helped my brother create 100 video tutorials for his coding school over a short period of time.

Using breakfast, lunch and Dinner as markers essentially means that you’re creating useful deadlines in your life.

2. Explore Calendar Blocking

This takes the above idea a step further as it helps you actually schedule your week with intention.

I have personally used this to double my productivity and I achieve a lot distraction-free as a result.

Watch this recent video I made to help you apply this practical idea of calendar blocking:

3. Embrace Automation

This is particularly useful for achieving your financial goals.

Let’s say that your goal is to pay off your mortgage early.

One strategy for doing that is to start making material overpayments.

If you make those overpayments whenever it suits you, you’re less likely to achieve your goal because other things will take priority.

Automating those payments to go out each month without fail helps you to remove the human emotions that can hold you back.

Same point applies to consistently saving a specific percentage of your income and investing it each month on auto-pilot no matter the weather.

4. Waking Up Early

Have you ever met anyone who wakes up early each day and is not successful at what they do?

The key to winning the day here is to start the night before.

If you plan to wake up at 5 a.m., for example, begin planning what exactly you’ll do from around 9pm the night before.

Doing this builds a powerful habit in your life and something about being up that early makes you feel good about being ahead.

The silence of early morning time is priceless 😊.

5. Do Life With Like Minded People

You've probably heard it said that “iron sharpens iron“.

The fastest way to achieve a transformation is to do it by learning directly from others.

It is easy to get frustrated trying to figure things out on your own and this gradually mutes all efforts for consistency.

I know for certain that my levels of belief and consistency have improved over the years because I've hung around people who inspire me.

If you're currently not seeing the consistency you want in your life, it is likely down to not having the motivation and inspiration from the right people around you.

Thankfully, it is something that you can take steps to change.

In conclusion,

There is so much to gain for having consistency across various areas of your life.

I for one have seen a vast improvement in my life outcome because I have paired commitment and consistency and made them a part of who I am.

If you currently struggle with being consistent, focus on only one area of your life and get that right. 

When you do, reflect on what worked and gradually apply the ingredients of your success to another area of your life.

Soon it becomes a part of who you are and with that comes all kinds of life successes. 

Related Resources >>

• Explore Our Membership Programme – Financial Joy Academy (FJA)
• Money & Life Lessons From My 20 Years As An Immigrant
• Is Keeping Up With The Joneses Destroying Your Future?

A Pic from Our Instagram – Enjoying a moment with our son on holiday during my early days 7 years ago as a new dad:

What is your biggest struggle with achieving consistency in your life day to day? Please comment below.

Do please share this post if you found it useful, and remember, in all things be thankful and Seek Joy.